Allen Woo explains the importance of people development in the workplace

Motivating your employees so that they feel valuable in the company is something we should not miss. However, often we do not give the importance it deserves to personal development within the company. Nowadays, all companies have a lot of competition, so there is a great challenge to face: to achieve the best results continuously. Allen Woo, an expert in personnel management, gives his opinion on the importance of employee development in a company.

“Empowering personal development allows all employees to awaken and develop skills and attitudes they already possess internally. In addition, personal development allows us to discover the talents we possess.
There is nothing better for personal fulfillment than discovering them and realizing all the possibilities that each person has within,” explains Woo.

Operating a business in today’s modern economy demands rapid innovation, streamlined processes, and first-class customer service. While these give you a competitive edge, your organization’s real driver and biggest differentiator are your employees.

Developing your employees does not simply mean training them. Every person, regardless of their level, wants to feel that they are genuinely cared for. One effective way to do this is through a commitment to supporting their professional and personal growth.

Training is not an objective in itself, but a means to achieve the company’s objectives, a resource to improve performance by enhancing three facets: knowledge, management, and attitude. To this end, training should not be just a collection of isolated activities that are inserted into the daily routine while respecting the status quo. Instead, they should aspire to change it, to be a tool for change; therefore, it should depend on a strategy and a clear vision of the target point, both in the long and short term.

According to Woo, the higher the degree of training and preparation of the company’s personnel, the higher their level of productivity, both qualitatively and quantitatively. The professional training programs constitute one of the most profitable investments, and technological progress directly and frequently influences business processes. If the organization does not keep pace with this evolution, it will suffer one of the most serious consequences: stagnation, and with it, backwardness and the impossibility to compete in the market or to provide, effectively and efficiently, the services of its competitors.

Vocational training, however, should not be oriented exclusively towards satisfying the purely technological and pragmatic needs of industry or commerce. It is mandatory, on the contrary, to consider the human condition of the worker, without pretending to use training as a means to transform him into a simple production machine. Ultimately, the company will obtain greater dividends if it takes care of the man-worker as a whole.

“The reality is that we are the ones who chain ourselves and do not allow our best version to emerge. Our mind often shackles us, but it can also be what gives us wings,” says Woo. “Achieving what we set out to do is in our hands and, therefore, the first step is to boost our self-confidence.”

Training represents an excellent opportunity to broaden the knowledge base of all employees in an organization, but many employers consider development opportunities to be expensive. Employees may also feel that they lose work time while attending training, as it can delay the completion of tasks/projects they are working on.

Training and developing people definitely provides both the company as a whole and individual employees with a benefit that far outweighs the cost and time invested. “When a company empowers its employees, the results can be truly spectacular. If they all pull in the same direction, goals will be achieved faster and more efficiently and, of course, the results will be great,” Woo asserts.

It is not possible to introduce changes in an organization, especially when it comes to human behavior, if there is not the right climate to motivate commitment and participation. Extending this concept, we can affirm that those employees who have access to training and development programs have the advantage over employees from other companies who seek training opportunities on their own. The investment in training, education, and development that a company makes promotes the involvement of people in the organization who also feel that they are valued by it.